C-ing double

During my lesson yesterday, John Turner helped to get me started with double stops as a fundamental ornamentation method for fiddle music. He showed me how to play scales using double stop drones in order to become accustomed to bowing across two strings simultaneously.

He also helped me to learn the fundamentals of strathspey rhythm and demonstrated how practically any 4/4 tune can be played as a slow air, strathspey, or reel, depending on one's mood. He confided that he had on several occasions, for his own entertainment, played the exact same tune in these three styles during Scottish Fiddling competitions, giving the judge a made-up name for each one and had never been questioned by the judge.

John also confirmed my own sense of two things with my instruments:

1) My Boulangeot is more difficult to play than my Doetsch, primarily because the strings on the French instrument are higher off the fingerboard. He said that the Boulangeot is harder to play, but gives more if pushed. That has been my experience as well.

2) My bow needs replacing, due to excessive 'mushiness'. It is my way of saying that I can't bite down with that bow. I think that I will talk to Jane Kapeller about trading it in on a high-quality carbon fiber bow.